“Are you happy now?” Linda Draper, a pioneer of NYC’s storied Antifolk scene, goes country, bringing her sharp emotional ambiguity to “‘81 Camaro”.

 New tune nods to legends Lucinda Williams, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker; Track is latest single from Draper’s “Patience and Lipstick,” out Jan. 21^st.
 
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Linda Draper as photographed by Jeff Um
 
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Linda Draper | “’81 Camaro”
  

[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/LindaDraper-81Camaro 

 
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Linda Draper’s new single “‘81 Camaro,” out today, is an authentic country number from the Antifolk pioneer, but the sentiments are straight from Draper’s iconoclastic downtown NYC roots. The tune is the latest single from Draper’s upcoming Patience and Lipstick (Jan. 21^st, South Forty Records).
 
“You said money can’t buy happiness, Well then give away your money, Now tell me how it feels to be free, Are you happy now?,” she sings on the tune.
 
Draper explains, “It’s a song about longing for the days of innocence, all the while knowing that those days are behind me, but still living for the joy that each moment has to offer, even if I have nothing but gratitude and the holes in my pockets to give in return.
 
“It is really the current state of life I find myself in now as I gear up for a move from New York, where I have lived my whole life, to the North Carolina coastline.”
 
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Linda Draper | In The Press
 

 
“Draper’s illuminating sound provides a radiant glow.” — No Depression
 
“Captivating magic.” — All Music Guide
 
“Not unlike folk mama Joan Baez.” — Time Out New York
 
“Channeling the finger-plucked folk music of Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake.” — American Songwriter
 
“Full of atmosphere with elegant, every-note-in-the-right-place instrumentation.” — Popmatters
 
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Linda Draper | Live
 

11/06/2021: Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer St., w/ Atoosa Grey)
 
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Linda Draper | About
 

“I asked them what the secret to a long and happy marriage was,” Linda Draper says, recalling a post-gig conversation with a pair of married fans.
 
“Jack is very patient,” Ivana, a flight attendant who works long hours, explained. “And Linda,” she continued, “I always carry a tube of lipstick in my purse. No matter how late it is, as soon as I turn the corner towards home, I reapply!”
 
Patience and Lipstick (Jan. 21^st, 2022, South Forty Records) is now the fortuitous title of Draper’s upcoming new album, and the tunes on the currently Brooklyn, soon to be North Carolina-based artist’s latest feel like they came about just as naturally.
 
“So the secret to a long and happy marriage is patience and lipstick?!,” Draper thought. “You know, I think there’s a song in there somewhere.”
 
Patience and lipstick.
 
The phrase also encompasses another idea: Of being willing to wait for things to get better and being ready to shine when they do. For Draper, the road to this record has been long, and not just because she has paid so many dues on the NYC songwriter scene, starting with her debut album Ricochet twenty years ago.
 
While Patience and Lipstick leans more country than any previous Draper album, anyone who may try to push her into the gentile, soon-to-be-North Carolinian corner, needs to know that the vulnerability in Draper’s songs is matched with the strength and attitude of a New Yorker.
 
Draper faced down and blew away many an audience at the Lower East Side’s songwriter testing ground Sidewalk Cafe (RIP) in the early years, and her first four albums were produced by noted iconoclast, Kramer (currently seeing his own resurgence with the re-boot of his groundbreaking record label Shimmy Disc.)
 
Talk is cheap still they keep speaking in their crooked tongues
Trying to sell me the idea we’re all in this together
I beg to differ... I beg to differ
We were never all in this together
There is no tether nor was there ever
 
The lyrics are from “Tether,” the first single from Patience and Lipstick, a perfect example of Draper’s special way of twisting a dark tune, tinged with the appropriate cynicism, into a sing-along.
 
Draper wrote the song just as the pandemic was shutting down the city.
 
“I was amazed and disgusted with how, literally overnight, every TV commercial, news outlet, and talk show was suddenly barraging us with these insincere and overly sentimental messages about how we are all in this together,” she says. “If there is anything that maybe everyone can all agree on these days, it is that we are not all in this together.”
 
It is a message of passion, blunt truth, and Draper’s personal reality, and it calls for patience. And it’s the album’s follow-up single “‘81 Camaro” that has gotta be the lipstick.
 
“My dream is for the folks at Cowboys (described online as “Orlando’s Best Country Nightclub”) to make up a country line dance for this song that I can actually learn how to dance to with them,” Draper exclaims.
 
The tune truly has the potential to become a standard in that way, which makes Draper’s other dream of having Lucinda Williams cover it, seem plausible.
 
Patience and lipstick.
 
Draper also identified with this in her decision to cover the 1972 Barbara Keith song “Detroit or Buffalo,” another of the album’s many highlights.
 
“As soon as Jeff Eyrich (Draper’s current producer, and himself a country music authority, having toured as bassist with all-time great, Tanya Tucker) shared this song with me, I instantly knew I wanted to cover it,” Draper remembers. “Barbara’s voice, and the message in her lyrics, are timeless, raw, and fearlessly vulnerable.”
 
On the fearless tip, Draper is also embarking on another new journey (a metaphorical one, not her upcoming relocation.)
 
“The name is inspired by the area in Montana next to where my mother’s side of the family has had their ranch since the 1930s,” she explains of South Forty Records, her newly formed label. “With the label, I’ve decided to provide a musical homestead, by honoring the music for the generations that came before and preserving it for the generations that will follow.”
 
It’s an endeavor inspired by her family’s near-century long relationship to the land, delivered with an acknowledgement that the effort may only bear its greatest fruit in the distant future. However, when it does, there is little doubt that Draper’s talents will impress.
 
Patience and lipstick.
 
Patience and Lipstick, the latest album by Linda Draper, is scheduled for release on Jan. 21^st, 2022 preceded by the singles “Tether” (Oct. 8^th), “‘81 Camaro” (Nov. 5^th), and “All In Due Time” (Jan. 7^th).
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
Linda Draper | “Tether”
 

[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/LindaDraper-Tether
 
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“At its core, ‘Tether’ is a protest song. It is a message of passion, blunt truth, and Draper’s personal reality, and it calls for patience.” – The Big Takeover
 
Head over to The Big Takeover to check out the premiere of “Tether,” the first single from Linda Draper’s upcoming Patience and Lipstick (Jan. 21^st, South Forty Records).
 
“I wrote this song during lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic,” Draper says. “I was amazed and disgusted with how, literally overnight, every TV commercial, news outlet, and talk show was suddenly barraging us with these insincere and overly sentimental messages about how we are all in this together.
 
“If there is anything that maybe everyone can all agree on these days, it is that we are NOT all in this together. We have never been more divided and distrustful. Those cozy little bubbles that we got ourselves stuck in just keep on popping. Now it’s time to face the music.”
 
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More about Linda Draper
 

Linda Draper grew up in a musical home as the daughter of a classical guitar virtuoso who studied with Andres Segovia. She began playing guitar and writing songs as a child and eventually became a fixture in the downtown New York City's Antifolk music scene on the Lower East Side.
 
Since 2001, Draper has released numerous albums, toured the US and UK, and opened for acclaimed musicians such as Teddy Thompson, Melissa Ferrick, Luka Bloom, and Eilen Jewell. Draper has also seen her songs licensed for commercials and television.
 
She is now embarking on her biggest challenge to date with the formation of her own label, South Forty Records.
 
Patience and Lipstick,” Draper’s upcoming new album, was produced by Jeff Eyrich, mixed by Grammy®-award winning engineer, Dae Bennett, and features performers David Mansfield (Strings), Jeff Eyrich (Bass), and Doug Yowell (Drums and Percussion). It is the inaugural release on the artist’s own label South Forty Records.
 
Linda Draper is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Linda Draper | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SPOTIFY : APPLE : SOUTH FORTY RECORDS
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL